To examine the causes of marital instability throughout the
life course, six waves of data were collected between 1980 and 2000
from married individuals who were between the ages of 18 and 55 in
1980. Information collected in 1980 (Wave I) focused on the effects of
wives' participation in the labor force on marriage and marital
instability. Measures predicting marital instability and divorce and
assessing marital quality were developed. Variables include
information on earnings, commitment to work, hours worked, and
occupational status. Th... (more info)

To examine the causes of marital instability throughout the
life course, six waves of data were collected between 1980 and 2000
from married individuals who were between the ages of 18 and 55 in
1980. Information collected in 1980 (Wave I) focused on the effects of
wives' participation in the labor force on marriage and marital
instability. Measures predicting marital instability and divorce and
assessing marital quality were developed. Variables include
information on earnings, commitment to work, hours worked, and
occupational status. The focus of Wave II, conducted in 1983, was to
link changes in factors such as economic resources, wife's employment,
presence of children, marital satisfaction, life goals, and health to
actions intended to dissolve a marriage, such as divorce and permanent
separation. Information on adjustment to marital dissolution,
relationship with in-laws, size of home, parents' employment, use of
free time, club membership, child-care arrangements, and
responsibility for chores was gathered. Wave III, collected in 1988,
further examined the impact of changes in employment, economics, and
health on marital relationships. Questions were asked about divorce
and remarriage, investment of energy and resource use in the care of
aging parents and dependent offspring, asset value, awareness of
aging, mental health issues, and history of disease. In 1992, Wave IV
data were collected to look at changes in employment, economics, and
health. Questions were asked about retirement issues, family
structure, and the impact of caring for aging parents while at the
same time caring for dependent offspring. Data were also collected in
1992 and 1994 from adult offspring who were living in the household in
1980 and had reached age 19 by 1992, thus providing parallel measures
with their parents regarding the quality of parent-child
relationships, attitudes, and support along with exploring the impact
of childhood experiences on the transition to adult life. In 1997, the
fifth wave was collected and interviews were conducted with a second
sample of adult offspring (N=202) along with second interviews of
offspring selected in 1992 (N=606). Wave V also examined the
relationship between marital quality and stability and how it relates
to changes in marital quality later in life. In 2000, Wave VI data
were collected. Included with the adult panel was a panel obtained from
the offspring who participated in 1992 or 1997, a replicate of the
original cross-section study completed in 1980 (comprised of currently
married persons between the ages of 19 and 55), along with a
comparison sample made up of persons who were married in 1980 and were
between 39 and 75 years old. The investigators examined whether there
were changes in marital quality between 1980 and 2000, identified
factors that might have accounted for these changes, and sought to
determine their impact on the health and longevity of older persons.
New questions included in Wave VI covered whether the respondent
thought he/she had an organized lifestyle, alcohol and tobacco use,
health problems, physical limitations, and mattering (the level of
concern expressed for and received from spouse). Among the variables
included in all six waves are age, sex, educational attainment,
marital status and history, attitude toward divorce, number of
children, religious affiliation, and income level.
The Work and Family Life Study (ICPSR 26641) was conducted in 2000 as a follow-up to the Marital Instability Over the Life Course Study. Included in the Work and Family Life Study is a new cross-section of 2,100 married people 55 years of age and younger. Additionally, the Work and Family Life Study contains a Comparison Sample comprised of 1,600 additional respondents. The purpose of this Comparison Sample is to assess potential bias due to sample attrition in the panel study.

Universe:
All intact marriages in the continental United States with
partners between the ages of 18 and 55 in 1980 and living in
households with telephones.

Data Types:
survey data

Data Collection Notes:

Because of additional cleaning of the data
performed by the principal investigator, this data collection
supersedes earlier versions (ICPSR 9199, ICPSR 9200, ICPSR 9747, and
ICPSR 2163).

In processing this collection, ICPSR did not change
missing data codes defined by the principal investigators, at their
request, and SAS and SPSS system missing data values were assigned
numeric codes for each variable. Also, an unmarried case in Wave I was
deleted at the principal investigators' request.

Methodology

Sample:
National probability sample. The sample was selected using
a random-digit dialing cluster technique. Data were weighted to adjust
for underrepresentation in metropolitan areas.

Data Source:

telephone interviews and mailback questionnaires

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: